CLEARWATER, Fla — As Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. declared in announcing the decision to place Cliff Lee on the 60-day disabled list, “Somebody is going to have to pitch for us.”
It appears likely that one of those guys will be “somebody” named David Buchanan.
“We all have to step up,” Buchanan said Tuesday after he struck out six of the first nine batters he faced and retired 10 in a row as the Phillies, wearing green jerseys and caps to commemorate St. Patrick’s Day, bowed to the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-3, at Bright House Field.
“Those are big shoes to fill,” Buchanan admitted.
“I had some optimism that we’d have a chance to see what he (Lee) could do, but it didn’t work out that way,” said manager Ryne Sandberg.
“That opens up the camp to different possibilities and different guys competing for the job. We have three or four guys in camp to look at for that spot. It’s an opportunity for somebody to step up and do well.”
At the moment, Buchanan, along with Cole Hamels, are the only completely healthy starters with previous experience in the Phillies’ starting rotation. Last season, Buchanan was 6-8 with a 3.75 ERA in 20 starts with the Phillies.
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Starting in place of the scratched Jerome Williams, another starting candidate, Buchanan worked the first four innings Tuesday, allowing a run on two hits. In his last two starts, he has pitched seven innings and held the opposition to a total of three hits and that one run. His ERA is 2.45 for the spring.
“He looked real sharp today,” said Sandberg. “He had an excellent change up and he got a lot of ground balls.”
“I’m not a big strikeout guy,” said Buchanan, Triple-A Lehigh Valley’s Opening Day pitcher a year ago. “That’s not my game. I’m mostly going to get ground balls. But strikeouts are always fun.”
Remember the Four Aces — Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Hamels? Five years ago, Phillies fans figured those four faces would be chiseled into granite on the side of a mountain someday.
Tuesday, zero World Series titles later, only Hamels remains in the starting rotation.
Asked how the loss of Lee has impacted the rest of the team, Buchanan said, “We haven’t talked about it much, but I know nobody wants to see a teammate go down like that. Not just a teammate but anybody in the game. That’s bad for baseball. That puts more on the backs of everybody else.”
At the moment, the Phillies’ tentative starting rotation consists of Hamels, who was hammered by the Orioles on Monday and who has a 9.00 ERA this spring; Aaron Harang, who has been scratched from two of his three scheduled starts this spring; and a gang of somebodys and maybes including Buchanan, Williams, Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, Kevin Slowey, Joely Rodriguez, Paul Clemens and Sean O’Sullivan.
Williams was scratched Tuesday because he tweaked his right hamstring. Gonzalez was converted to a reliever last season because of doubts about his durability as a starter. Rodriguez has never pitched above Double-A. And Slowey and Clemens are non-roster invitees.
Veteran right-hander Chad Billingsley, who signed with the Phils as a free agent in January, will likely be in the rotation at some point, but he is still recovering from a pair of elbow surgeries.
Ironically, Buchanan made his big league debut on May 24, 2014, because Lee was beginning his first of two stints on the disabled list to try to rehab his left elbow.
“My biggest goal this spring is to show our front office and our coaches that I can throw the ball over the plate,” said Buchanan.
“That's one thing I had success with last year. I wasn’t walking guys. I was throwing strikes, and that's what I'm known for: Pound the zone, force early contact, and keep the ball on the ground.”